Spacefold Drive
"Yahknow them Guild Heighliners, why do you think they make em so big? Buddy of mine thinks their tryin to compensate for some attributes what are lacking if yahknow what I mean." ~Overheard conversation in the Galaxy Gallaria Food court. ---- What it is Advanced Physicists treat the function of Universal space time as being akin to a giant hollow sphere, Which radiates outward from the point of Event one (the Big bang as it is crudely known) and is slowly expanding outwards. All motion in 3 dimensional space happens upon the "surface" of this sphere in relation to Time. Objects of mass are represented as depressions in the surface of the Sphere, or "Impurities in the Void" as some more poetic physicists refer to them. To Travel from one location to another along the surface of the sphere takes a set distance between two points, you then move linearly along the path. Since the Sphere is always expanding the amount of distance relates to how much expansion has occurred during the trip which equates to how long the journey takes. What the Spacefold drive does is in essence allow a ship to "Pinch" or Fold together two points in spacetime so that they merge together as one point. This is generally referred to as a tesseract. Older scholars would explain it with a piece of string with either end held in each hand and a bug. The usual shortest distance between one hand and the other is to walk along the string. What the Spacefold does is bypass the string in bringing the hands together to meet and then the Bug can simply step off one and onto the other. Where the String analogy fails, is that as stated, masses such as planets and suns and other gravitic points of matter exist within spacetime and therefore cause irregularities in the bending. (Imagine if along the string there were parts that couldn't be moved, or resist the bend of the string at various points ceasing it from being cleanly folded.) This is where prescient navigators come into play. Due to their perception of the universal sphere, they are able to plot a Course of folds (Similar to the origami of Asian Earth) that will Bypass the interfering impurities and bring both the Start point and the destination together. A living prescient mind is required for nearly all navigation using a Fold Drive, since the prescient brain can be trained to instinctually perceive the entirety of the universe at once in order to plot a course and "feel" how the folding will work, whereas a advanced computer system is usually unable to obtain, handle or process that much data all at once. And since the entirety of the universe is constantly expanding and thus positions are changing in relation to Space-time, the course one plots at one instant of time, may not be the same usable course later on. There is also a lot of theories that involve the mere fact that living thought affects the outcome of the spacefold, wherein the mere presence of observation and descision of which way to bend the space affects just how it will work (Similar to decision points in Slipstream), however it is difficult to prove as a "control" experiment cannot really be done, since every experiment involves a living prescient mind. There are some species who have claimed to have built a system that is capable of forming a Tesseract between two points without the use of prescience, And some records indicate there have been some devices and ships that make use of such without a living mind navigating, however they are rare and most advanced physicists assume some kind of advanced AI is in use, or that such is a fluke that cannot be repeated on a mass scale. ---- Benefits & Drawbacks Being able to Travel anywhere instantly without transiting through the intervening space is it's primary benefit. The amount of power usage is impressive, but no moreso than other types of translight drives. Mass of the Ship has no bearing on how much power is required or how fast the transit can be made. The primary disadvantage is the need for a prescient navigator. using advanced Physics anything can effectively fold spacetime, however doing so safely requires the navigator to make the adjustments and guide the fold effectively. Without such, things like Line of Sight Tesseracts are possible (And the rare instances of a advanced computational system which functions as a prescient) however anything further away than a Light-year is considered dangerous to attempt without the prescient.